Rangers’ pre-season isn’t exactly going how Pedro Caixinha, his players and supporters expected. Out of Europe in short order to part-time minnows Progres Niederkorn, they were suddenly left without a schedule of friendlies and fixtures before their first Scottish Premiership match of the season.
That’s since been rectified and there are upcoming matches against Sheffield Wednesday and Marseilles for the Light Blues to test themselves and give fans an opportunity to see how things are progressing.
This week again there’s a bit of uproar within the support after a poor closed-door defeat to St Johnstone on Wednesday in which they conceded a shambolic goal and saw Niko Kranjcar ordered off.
Caixinha has worked hard to bring a freshness to his first team but the same old problems seem to persist. Despite all his signings there are still areas of the team that need work in the time left remaining this transfer window.
These are the three priorities we reckon Rangers need to sort out before league action begins…
Centre-back
While Pedro Caixinha has already shipped out Philippe Senderos and Clint Hill while bringing in Fabio Cardoso and Bruno Alves, there’s still plenty of work to be done in the Rangers defence if they are to have a successful season next term.
Beyond the two Portuguese players, it’s slim pickings with only Danny Wilson available as a senior and experience centre-back. They do have youth like David Bates and Ross McCrorie to call upon but their calamitous role in conceding against St Johnstone this week points to two players that cannot be relied upon in the first-team.
They need another quality centre-back to come and compete for that spot beside Bruno Alves. If they can find a defender pushing for that place, it will only bring on the game of both Wilson and Cardoso.
Right-back
Rangers have no credible back-up to James Tavernier that can perform consistently and given the right-back himself didn’t exactly have the best of seasons last year, it makes this position one of the critical problems that Pedro Caixinha needs to solve this summer.
There’s even been reported speculation that Tavernier could be leaving the Light Blues this summer, with The Scotsman reporting last month that they rebuffed a bid from Nottingham Forest for the defender.
The Ibrox side could do with a more pragmatic choice in the position. Plenty of goals were lost last season due to the Englishman finding himself out of position and caught out on the right flank. There’s no doubt he has an energy about him in attack, but the Gers need to focus on shoring things up and becoming a more consistent outfit.
It’s for those reasons we reckon he needs serious competition, even if he doesn’t end up moving on.
Left wing
With the departure of Barrie McKay to Nottingham Forest, Rangers have been left without an effective creative presence on the left hand side this summer. While McKay had plenty of problems of his own, he could be relied upon to be one of the team’s top performers in any given fixture.
Creativity appears to be a real problem in this Rangers team, even with the incoming recruits, and making a key signing on the left wing could be trans-formative to their whole attack.
Contenders include the likes of Jamie Walker, who scored 15 goals for Hearts last season and has been heavily linked with a move from Edinburgh to Glasgow this summer. The Daily Record reported last week that the Light Blues were to make another offer for the winger after being turned down previously.
Whether that comes to fruition or not remains to be seen but it’s certain that it’s an area of the first team that Pedro Caixinha needs to sort out.
